Ringing in the New Year with anti-Style

18 hour flight + many friends not 21 = staying at home

no big deal

I'm going to Africa next year, so you'll be getting some posts about that in the future.

Just so ya know.

Oh, its also summer there. 

So that's cool.

Why I am Crazy reasons 3-8

Continuing with why I'm crazy:

20 Credit hours

10 late night skates

4 clubs

2 Majors

1 new caffeine addiction

0 countless nights with little sleep

80 Volunteer Hours

Continuing with why I'm crazy:

I took a class this semester that required we volunteer in the community.  It was the best decision of my life.  I loved this class.  By the end of the semester some of the students were struggling to fulfill their hours.  I had completed my required hours by the end of September (a whole three months ahead of time).  I continued to volunteer there because I liked the place.

Hours required by the class: 28
Hours I accumulated by the end of classes: 80

128 Office Hours

While I'm in Mexico I thought I'd explain to you why I am crazy.  This is reason number one.

I am in an organization called Habitat for Humanity.  We're a student chapter and we have an office in the student organization complex.  Last year, the Vice President (now President) had the most recorded office hours.  (He was present in the office for that many hours)

This year, he is now president and at our first meeting he challenged all of us to beat him in office hours.  Anyone who succeeded would be taken out to a steak dinner.  At first no one tried really hard.  But then I started racking up the hours because I had large breaks in my day.  And then everyone was cheering me on to beat him.

He once spent 18 hours in the office in one week.  So how did I respond?  I started playing dirty.  I didn't record my hours until the last minute.



So how many hours did he record?  122
How many did I record? 128
What was the average number of hours for everybody else? 45

Will I enjoy that steak? Why, yes, yes I will.

80 degrees and raining

That is, its 80 degrees and raining in Mexico.  I'll be going there for a few days with my family before Christmas.  For the first time this vacation is going to feel more like a real vacation.  Usually we go somewhere in August, but this year our schedules didn't work out.  When we go in August, I've been on summer vacation for two months and am pretty much relaxed.

Traveling right after finals?  I can't wait to relax.

I'll be back by Christmas hopefully armed with a picture of lights on a palm tree.

Dial a Carol

Around finals week, starting on reading day, you can call a number and a group of students will sing any carol that you request.  My friend seeing me frustrated the other day called these students and put in a request that they call me and sing me a song on my phone.


Well, they get calls from all over the world.  Not even kidding.  They never called.  But I appreciated the gesture.  It made me smile.

Welcome to Finals Part 2

-or-

How You Know You Picked the Right Major

I am no longer struggling my way through physics.  I have moved on to a much better subject.  Anatomy and Physiology.  A quick note about that picture, the study guide isn't even done yet.

For the past two days I have been struggling to get myself to study physics.  Now, I actually like physics.  I think its pretty cool.  I like it best when I can do the math.  I can't always do the math.

People who teach physics have a nasty way of just knowing how it works.  When they try to explain things to you they skip steps that are essential to understanding the result.  This happens in math too.  My frustration with physics stems from this: worked out quizzes with the solutions.  They cite an equation, say "hence" and have the answer, supposedly proven.  It takes about 10 minutes to figure out that hence.

Times like this I question why I picked the major I did.

The point of this is that I am now studying biology.  Not physics.  I have been more productive in the past few hours with this subject than I had been previously.  This can be measured - by the number of breaks I take.

So how do you know you picked the right major?  Well, even though I hate studying and its like pulling teeth to get me to start, I secretly couldn't wait to start going over this material.

After all, the brain is pretty cool.

(The diencephalon is a structure in the middle of your brain)

Welcome to Finals

  9:30: sleep through alarm

11:00: find your cell phone and realize you have a text from someone who wants to study with you

11:03: realize you should get out of bed and start studying

11:10: look at the shower and think "I should really take a shower, but I don't feel like it"

11:11: decide you really need a shower

11:30: decide to dry your hair because let's be honest, who wants to start studying before noon

11:45: stare at your computer (specifically facebook) and realize you should eat something before heading off to the library for who know's how long

11:47: stare at your refrigerator and freezer

11:53: there's nothing to eat

11:54: find the last chimichanga

11:56: eat the chimichanga

12:15: leave your apartment armed with a sandwich for dinner

12:30: arrive at the library, find a place to sit, stare at computer again

12:45: take out books and attempt to study

4:30: you realize that you're in a bad mood because 1) its physics, 2) you're hungry and tired

4:31: eat sandwich you didn't want to eat because you were dreaming of Chipotle

4:55: leave the library because you're a lot hungrier than that sandwich could handle and you really want spaghetti with your special sauce

5:35: eat spaghetti

5:52: check your phone to see that you've missed more texts and calls from another friend who wants to study with you

6:10: arrive at Caribou Coffee only to find out that the internet isn't working, so you switch to Starbucks

8:23: have a mini fit because of the high pitched voice of the girl to your right, the really loud guy to your left and the barrista who keeps shouting to Francis, oh and you're still studying physics

9:02: order a Chai Tea Latte because you want to sleep before 4am tonight

12:00: get kicked out of Starbucks because it's closed

12:01: side step all the college kids who are done with finals (including the crying girl - maybe she just realized she has another final?)

12:07: arrive at your apartment steps only to realize that you won't actually get anything done there because you don't have a real table

12:07.5: decide to go back to Caribou

12:13: arrive back at Caribou and side step the crazy college kids who are done with their finals and are wandering a grocery store

12:17: find a place to sit and hope the internet works now

12:30: go back to studying after staring at facebook

1:00: you're done with everything you wanted to do and now don't know what to do with yourself because you can't fall asleep before 4am but you really don't want to look at physics anymore

My new addiction, vice, whatever you want to call it.

Caribou Coffee > Starbuck's coffee> homemade coffee > Dunkin' Donuts coffee

My new love <3

What do you do on Friday Night?

Extremely hot canola oil + cut up flour tortilla shells + too much salt = deliciousness

And by deliciousness, I mean homemade tortilla chips.

My roommate and I were complaining how we have no food to eat, and I mentioned how I have boatloads of salsa (I made some and it was a bit too much) and no tortilla chips.  My roommate suggested that we make our own.

Best.

Idea.

Ever.

That's a Grocery Store too?

In this spirit of finals week I went to a local coffee shop, ordered some coffee with hazelnut (because its gross any other way) and stayed up way too late attempting to do work or learn something.  When I decided I was done, I went to the other side of the building and picked up some milk and orange juice because I was running low.

I used to think only bookstores and the like had coffee shops in the middle of their buildings, but so does County Market.  In fact, you can buy an entire meal ready to eat then walk to some of these tables at eat it.  There was even a microwave upstairs (yes, there are two levels) so you could eat frozen food.

The best part?  Its open 24 hours.  Much better than that gym I was trying to get into at 10pm the other night.  Or Starbucks which is about 2.5 blocks away (which closes at 12).

December is cookie time

Well, its December and that means its time for cookies.  So in the spirit of Christmas coming up I started baking.  My mom and I usually bake for weeks before hand and we bake a lot.

So I baked chocolate chip cookies.

And chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

AND ginger snaps.

I believe I was baking for 7 hours. 

It. 

was. 

epic.

Drowned Rat

This was taken in 2008 at the Morten Arboretum.  I thought you should know.

It rained today.

  Hard. 

It was almost horizontal. 

I heard thunder. 

I was wet up to my eyeballs. 

And then, I heard there was tornado in a town half an hour north of us.  So what did I do?

Well, I gave up on the umbrella my friend was so graciously sharing with me.

And I danced.  

In the rain.

The sad point for the day - I forgot to be an airplane.  I'll remember that for next time.  

I hope.

Apartment Love

I live in an apartment now which means: bills, rent, and responsibility.  Yay.  Its actually quite amazing.  I haven't been this happy at college since  before I left.  That doesn't really make a lot of sense.  Basically, I'm not happy in a 15 x 12 cinder block room that I'm sharing with someone else.  But just like living in a house on your own, there's always problems.  I feel like every time I get one fixed, there's another one coming.

It started with a window.  I moved in and my window facing the street didn't lock or close or open.  It was kind of perpetually stuck in the same position.  That took about 4 weeks to fix.

I had a leaky air conditioner and an overheating dryer.

I had drafty windows.

My ceiling leaks.  Yes, present tense.  This happened on Wednesday night.  I was sitting on  my couch getting reading to fall asleep when I heard some weird noise coming from the bathroom.  I opened the door and there is water running down the walls and dripping onto the floor. Our mat by the toilet is soaked, and the toilet paper has a hole in it from where the water has been dripping for the past couple of hours I can only assume.

I went to my upstairs neighbors to make sure no one was dead and no one was, but they also didn't want any help fixing the bathroom.  So my only solution: buckets and a phone call.  I called the property manager for the umpteenth time this semester to let them know there is water in the bathroom where it shouldn't be.

Its stopped leaking since then.  I'm just wondering when the bathtub from upstairs will fall through the ceiling.

Thursday

This was not today.  

Today there was snow.

[Enter Title Here]

Things that I have learned this week (and it's only Tuesday):

• The Union Vending machine room is open until 3am
• The Union closes at midnight
• Grainger has a designated eating area
• You can only have a study room in UGL for 2 hours
• The Six pack smells bad
• I am what some would call an overacheiver and do way too much
• I like coffee
• Getting 1000+ emails a day is only exciting if you're picking a color for a t-shirt
• South Africa and the United States are strangely parallel countries (I may explain that later)
• I would rather stare at facebook than do what I'm supposed to do (which is pretty much everything else in the world)
• When it rains, the ground is wet
• Eating chocolate and pretzels at the same time is possibly the best idea ever
• I miss my friends

Sometimes, we drive through corn

This past weekend I was in Indianapolis (I know, exciting city right?).  Why was I there?  Well I'm part of this non-profit organization called Habitat for Humanity and we had a youth conference there.  There was lots of Habitatness and I got a lot of Habitat swag.  You know college kids, we like the free stuff.

Something exciting that came out of this weekend was the American Mural Project, which had part of a huge mural that's going up in Connecticut that we all got to decorate.  This is our contribution.

Happy... November?

  

Uhm, what happened to October?  Anyways, today was a beautiful day.  I wore a hoodie and scarf because it was so warm. 

It's Paradoxical

I have been trying to sleep for the past three hours.  I gave up on my bed and decided to eat some food.  My midnight snack of choice?  chips and salsa.  I look forward to the strange dreams that ensue, if I ever fall asleep.

Earlier today I was watching a movie and fell over sideways and slept for an hour.  Before that I took a nap in a library, and another nap when I got back from the library.  All this nappage would suggest that I need a lot of sleep.  So what did I do when I got tired? I went to bed.  Apparently, that was a bad decision.

It's currently October 31 and that means Halloween.  So, Happy Halloween!  I'll be celebrating by taking a physics test.  Yippee.

Oh, There's the R

I know you're all curious.  Did that keyboard come in today?  Can I type like a normal person again?

Well, the answer is yes, in case you couldn't tell from the picture above.  I'm so excited.  In fact, after I started typing again, it felt weird to hit the R key.  And this new keyboard is awesome.  You probably never realized it but when you get a new computer the keyboard feels kind of frictiony.  And by that I mean its rough but smooth and generally not worn.  That's exactly how this one feels.  Plus there's no marks on the keys from the ones I use most often, and it makes a pretty sweet sound - kind of like the last key board, but I like this sound better.  (mostly because its not coupled with my angry frustration of having to type "ctrl v" all the time. :)

Now, you might be wondering, how did I replace the key board?  Did I go all the way over to India to have them replace it?  No!  That's really far.  But if it was my only excuse to get there, I'd do it.  Anyways, being the tech savvy person I am, I used my genius and deduced the perfect way to replace the key board.  And by genius, I do mean genius.  However, I did get a little help from my friend Internet.  He's quite helpful in most things.  Like what I should make for dinner.  And replacing key boards.

(And by the way, Internet did not tell me to make dinner today, the fajita packet and banana bread mix box told me. And, because I know you're wondering, the banana bread smells delicious.  Too bad you can't smell it...)

I called India

You may remember a post a while back about a missing "r" key on my key board.  Well, I got fed up with it not being there, (that and the key that fell off is now broken) and called India.  There's a button underneath the keys that actually types the letter.  This has stopped working.  Instead of hitting "r" with my index like most normal people type, I hit "Ctrl" with my pinky and "v" with my index.  Its tons of fun.  And by fun, I mean, most annoying and it considerably slows down my typing.

On the high note for today however, despite now being acutely aware of how many "r's" I actually type, I have called India and I have a brand spanking new keyboard due for delivery tomorrow.  Will this fix my "r" problem? Who knows.  I'm not entirely sure what they're sending me but I hope it works, because this whole missing r thing is getting old.

A quick note about the picture above, there are two peanuts in one.  I call that a win!

We found another park

I have been at school since August 20th.  That's roughly 9 weeks.  I have not been home.  I have been to Chicago, but that was for a marathon.  So how do we fix the problem of my parents missing me?  They come to me!  And that's exactly what they did.

They came down Saturday and as there isn't always a whole lot to do in the middle of corn, so we found a park and walked around in it.  The name?  Allerton Park.  So here are some pictures of it.  We were attacked by lady bugs or "Asian Beetles."